c. 1800

In 1783, sculptor Augustin Pajou was commissioned to execute a sculpture for the entrance of the Salle des Antiques in Paris that would serve as a pendant piece to Cupid Carving a Bow from Hercules’ Club by Edme Bouchardon (1698-1762). Pajou's plaster model of the nymph Psyche, depicted as having just been abandoned by Cupid, created a scandal at the Salon of 1785, where its nudity was considered to be licentious. The work was withdrawn from the exhibition, but Pajou's life-size version in marble earned great critical acclaim when completed in 1790. Pajou subsequently modeled two terra-cotta statuettes based upon the popular sculpture, as well as bronze reductions.